Finally able to resume trying my Bond Nº 9 samples, the trauma of New York Oud finally wore off. This one started out with zero musk and a lot of cotton candy but luckily the cotton candy is mostly gone and there is in fact a little musk in it. Still seems a bit synthetic and more powdery than I would like. Bond Nº 9 is neither priced nor marketed like a mass-market house, why does it smell like one? I must not have hit on any of the house's successes yet.